ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 114, 14 April 1870, Page 6

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

An unusually fine specimen of the genus " Cockney " was caught and submitted for the inspection of the Magistrates at the Willenhall Police Court last week. This gentleman had never seen a swan, and espying one in a field, innocently supposed -it* to be a wild bird and shot it. The 7 Justice considered that although the opportunity to study Nature herself might have been denied, he should have found a spare moment for Buffon's "Natural History." He fined the ignoramus 2s 6d, and ordered him to pay a guinea for the bird.

Sir Eutherford Alcock, in bidding adieu to Prince Kung, was addressed by that functionary in these words — "Now you are going home, I wish you would take away with you your opium and missionaries." — " China Mail."

As Miss Howard, a lady engaged at the Greenwich Theatre, was going home one night lately she heard piercing screams for help proceeding from under the Catford Bridge, which crosses the river Eavensbourne. Looking over the bridge she saw two children struggling in the water> having evidently fallen in from the footpath. Plunging at once in to their rescue, she succeeded in getting them both to the side, but the bank being Bft. high, and nearly perpendicular, she was unable to climb up it or make good a landing. The weight of her clothes, and the children clinging to her rendered the task of keeping above water a difficult one, and all three were on the point of sinking when Superintendent Griffin, who was travelling on horseback, hearing their cries, galloped up and rescued them from their perilous position.

Mr. John Tidd Pratt, for manyyears Kegistrar of Friendly Societies, died at 29 Abingdon Street, London, in his seventy-second year. The deceased gentleman was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in L 824, and in addition to his office as Eegistrar of Eriendly Societies, held a post in the National Debt Office, and was the barrister appointed to certify the rules of savings' banks. He was the author of " Laws relating to Friendly Societies," "A Collection of the Public G-eneral Statutes," " The History of Savings' Banks," " The Laws of Highways," "An Analysis of the Property Tax Act," " Suggestions for the Establishment of Eriendly Societies," and other works of a similar character. In the latter years of his life he rendered efficient service to the public in disclosing, so far as official restraint would permit him, the unsound condition and business of some of the benefit, friendly and secular societies. He also gave great assist-^ ance to the Legislature in its efforts to bring about a sounder state of things amongst such associations. He was always ready to supply anxious private inquirers with any information they desired as to the position and stability of societies in which they were interested.

A Paris correspondent says :— I wish the women who set the fashions would visit the prison of St. Pelagic ; then they would see how those false chignons are manufactured which they impudently hang over their nape or suffer to float over their shoulders. One workshop is devoted to this branch, which is learnt in a very short apprenticeship. All the hair purchased off doubtful heads, picked up here^ there, and everywhere, collected from the comb, or thrown into the street; and caught by the chiffonier's hook, is sorted in shades, divided according to its length, and, after a cleansing process which does not make it much nicer, it is sent to St. Pelige, where prisoners pass their days in fixing it on silken threads. Thence, when it has been arranged according to the rules of art, it finds its way to the" Faubourg St. Germain.

The "Licensed Victuallers' Guardian" has it on good authority that a Bill, intended to alter the terms on which public-house licenses are to be granted in future, is now in preparation 1 by the Government. One of its provisions is to the effect that all new licenses will in future be subject to 1 monetary competition ; that is, assuming the magistrates of a district, town,or county are prepared, we will say for example, to grant six new licenses, then each of the applicants will be* required to send in a sealed tender, stating what premium he is prepared to pay for the grant of the license. The magistrates will open these ten^ ders, and the licensing will be granted to the highest bidder. Now, this appears to us to be the reductio ad abswrdum of licensing legislation. As the law at present stands, unscrupulous publicans who are rackrented, have sufficient salve for their consciences when they give the public inferior liquour. When, however, the "highestbidder" state of matters becomes law, frequenters of certain public-houses may thank their stars if they are not poisoned within a 'month.

The number of codfish caught on the Pacific coast during the season amounts to one million and sixty -four thousand-